Two Worlds: A Junior Experimental Project by Annamari Jaaksi (2013)

For the Experimental Unit I explored the feeling of conflict I experience with the division of two worlds. The right side represents a world that is a dull black and white. The smoke is dark and the tree colorless. The lock and the lines on her neck represent a cage which restrains her, and her hair is straight and face is plain. In contrast, the left side is lively and colorful. The key opens the lock and sets her free into a colorful world of beautiful flowers and smoke. Her hair is wild and curly, and her face has paint on it. However, the girl isn’t smiling, because she is drawn into both worlds which causes the conflict.

To create this, I did my little sisters hair and makeup, then took a picture of her with a Nikon D80 camera. After that, I used photoshop to edit it. I used the pen tool to trace her and desaturate the right half of her. After that, I traced the tree, lock, smoke, flowers and key and moved it onto a layer underneath my sister, so that it seemed like they were coming out of her head. I edited the contrast, saturation and color balance of all those items, and added a drop shadow and inner glow to some of them to make it more fascinating. After that, I looked for a background that wouldn’t distract you from the girl and the items, but would still work with the piece.